First Nations overall five times more likely to overdose, despite being just 3.4% of population, health authority and mental health minister reveal.

by David Ball, Metro Vancouver News, August 3, 2017

The statistics are as shocking as the “horrific” crisis they measure, British Columbia’s new mental health minister, Judy Darcy, warned Thursday.

First Nations women in B.C. were eight time more likely to overdose on drugs than non-First Nations women, and First Nations overall were five times more likely to overdose. As for fatal overdoses, the news was equally grim: one-in-ten B.C. drug deaths last year was First Nations. Read the rest of this entry →